Wall Street stock indices plummeted on Thursday following President Donald Trump’s sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on US trading partners.
At 12:58 PM EDT, the S&P 500 was down 3.84%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.07%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 5% lower.
At 11:32 AM EDT, the S&P 500 was down 4.07%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.41%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 5.21% lower.
As of 9:32 a.m. Eastern time, the S&P 500 was down 3.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 4.5% lower.
Investors were fretting that the US economy will end up worse off from President Trump’s trade war.
Trump’s tariff plan on Wednesday came much harder than expected, as he announced a minimum 10% levy on all the US trading partners and slapped additional levies on nations with big trade imbalances.
Trump’s latest move has escalated retaliation from other countries and sent investors rushing for safe havens.
Bond yields drop below 4%
The yield on benchmark Treasuries fell below 4% for the first time since October 2024.
The 10-year yields declined as much as 13 basis points on Thursday to dip below 4%, the lowest level since before Trump was elected last year.
Most other yields also hit session lows.
Worries that the steepest hike in American tariffs in a century will hammer US and global economic growth is driving a fierce rally in global bond markets, with yields on European and UK bonds also plunging.
Top losers
Among the megacap stocks, Apple shed the most, sinking over 8%.
Concerns over the impact of an aggregate 54% tariff on China, which is the base for much of the iPhone maker’s manufacturing, dragged the stock.
Shares of Microsoft dropped 1.28%, Nvidia slumped 6.24%, Alphabet fell 3.10%, Tesla lost 4.53%, Meta Platforms fell 5.83%, and Amazon lost 7.29%.
Retailers were also hit hard on Thursday, with Nike stock plunging 11% and Ralph Lauren declining 12%.
Lenders such as Citigroup and Bank of America Corp , which are sensitive to economic risks, fell over 8% each.
JPMorgan Chase & Co dropped 4.5%.
Energy stocks edged lower after oil prices slumped over 7% on Trump tariffs and OPEC’s plans to speed up production hikes. Exxon Mobil and Chevron fell about 3.5% each.
Crude oil
Oil prices tumbled the most since 2023 after suffering a twin hit from Trump’s tariffs and an OPEC decision to hike output.
West Texas Intermediate futures plunged as much as 7.4% to trade below $67 a barrel, while global benchmark Brent plummeted as much as 6.9% to slip below $70.
Bullion
Gold prices fell more than 2% on Thursday, easing from a record high.
Spot gold fell 1.1% to $3,098.73 as of 10:04 AM EDT (1404 GMT) after earlier hitting a record of $3,167.57. US gold futures fell 1.4% to $3,121.90.
Silver slipped 5.6% to $32.12. Platinum fell 3% to $954.17, and palladium lost 3.3% to $937.44.
